Kpone-Kantamanso inaugurates nine-member HIV/AIDS committee

The Kpone-Kantamanso Municipal Assembly (KKMA) has inaugurated a nine-member Committee to help curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Municipality.

The Committee chaired by Mr Solomom Tettey Appiah, Municipal Chief Executive, is expected to initiate interventions to mobilize resources, both financial and technical towards developing programmes to reduce stigmatisation of patients, as well as sensitise residents on HIV/AIDS matters.

The Committee members are Municipal Director of Health, Person Living with Disability, Civil Society Organisations, a Christian group, Federation of Muslims and Ahmadiyya Mission, Traditional Council, Municipal Director of Education, and the Municipal HIV focal person.

Mr Kyeremeh Atuahene, Director-General, Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) in an address read on his behalf by Madam Afriyie, Technical Coordinator of the Technical Support Unit, said Municipal and District AIDS Committees of the Commission had been replaced with a slightly modified membership under section (9) of the Commission's enabling Act.

He noted that GAC had adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals three to end AIDS by 2030 which aimed of ensuring that all people infected with HIV in the country would know their status, adding that all persons diagnosed with HIV would have anti-retroviral therapy.

Mr Atuahene stated that “the estimated national HIV prevalence is 1.70 with the number of people living with HIV and AIDS estimated at 342,307 made up of 316,352 adults and 25,955 children”, and therefore called on the Committee, and Ghanaians to support the Commission to end HIV AIDS scourge by 2030.

Madam Rita Afriyie, the Technical Coordinator of the Technical Support Unit, called for equal attention and focus on other exiting diseases such as HIV/AIDS as the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had shifted focus from other diseases.